This is bloody brilliant

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_phillips_creative_houses_from_reclaimed_stuff.html

"self propelling prophecy, engineers, designers, architects etc all thing things need to be neat, straight and perfect so customers (people) come to demand neat, straight and perfect and then you get the advertisers who sell us neat, straight and perfect and the colour and trend of the day!"

This guy is saying so much more then recycle products to build better homes.  He is talking about human nature and the irony of our wants and desires and our insatiable appetite for more and social norms that we talk ourselves into.  "we have confused Maslow's hierarchy of needs" - what we want and need is completely confused when we save for designer jeans instead of essentials

"our housing has become a commodity" - we sprawl whenever we can, we have invented excess... "we need to reconnect with who we really are and that is a thrilling opportunity"

The coolest house I ever visited was in Vietnam, Dalat.  Check out the pictures here:  http://hotels-in-vietnam.com/hotels/Dalat/crazyhouse_hotel.html .  That was the funnest most entertaining house I have ever been in!  I want to do more with my home with less...  Work like this video and this crazy hotel in Vietnam should act as inspirations for the architects who still have artistic roots and those costumers who still see perfect not in straight lines but in beautiful recycled and reused functional elements of a home.

There is a huge desire and market for renovations in Regina right now, I don't know anyone in the construction industry that isn't crazy busy, many friends don't even answer their phones when they think it will be new business.  Why are we suddenly soooo caught up in granite counter tops, new kitchens and bathrooms, hardwood flooring, new paint, etc etc etc,  Where is all the old stuff going, Habitat for Humanity only has room for so much stuff... Another benefit of used furniture, recycled and reused stuff is that the off-gassing of potential and probable carcinogens was already done in someone else's home (too bad for the Joneses who keep buying new stuff). I recently heard about a cool project called the Re-house that Waalnut is taking on with the Restore where everything is going to be recycled reused and refurbished, I LoVE it and would love to see more of this kind of thinking.

I promise to think before I renovate!  

Human Nature

http://www.vbs.tv/en-ca/watch/toxic/toxic-garbage-island-3-of-3

Interesting documentary, scary, sad, sad, sad.  What are we doing to our one and only planet???  We are pooping plastic into our oceans without really realizing that we have to eat this...

Some things that resonated with me.  "We live in the happy consciousness era, globalization is inevitable, he who dies with most toys wins, we have more stuff then ever before.  Plastic in our oceans is a symbol of the wrong direction we as a society are taking.  Are society's giving us our bang for our buck, are we getting enough value out of them?"

Also had some interesting conversations on human nature last night and tonight.  Are we inherently bad or good or a bit of both, I like to hope a bit of both... or maybe we are all different based on our own circumstances, upbringing, conscious, morals and social setting... We are good when its expected of us, bad when no one is looking, in pursuit of money and more stuff almost constantly and WIIFM factors into many if not all of our decisions... (Whats In It For Me).

random thoughts, just wanted to capture them!!

One More Minute Dilemma

What would you do with another minute... this video makes the dilemma of live for future generations and delayed gratification vs. me me me and now, live for the moment and forget about tomorrow, that much more challenging...

http://interactive.nfb.ca/#/testtube

I don't know if it is effective, or what its goal is and how to measure it, its a scary thought and a dilemma I often think about, challenge myself on, but rarely take actions...  If we really are down to our last minute, why to I continue to live like a king, while so many around the world struggle to get by... I feel so privileged!

To Mike and Tanya

Congratulations to two friends Mike and Tanya on their recent wedding (last night recent), I had a lot of fun and was glad to share your special day with you both!

When do you come to the understanding that you are with the one you love, that special person that will contribute to your happiness forever?  I see a lot of friends choosing their significant others and reproducing, and I see a lot of others that are not working out.

Falling head over heels, offers the greatest feeling for the soul and mind, the elixir of life I may argue.  The feelings generated from a first kiss, holding hands, gazing into each others eyes, thinking about that person nonstop and how to generate more of that feeling... I guess endorphins are a 'powerful drug'!  So how to keep generating endorphins as years pass, and how do you know when you have met the one, when there are so many wonderful people out there...???

Should logistics trump love?  Should you let where you live and what you do get in the way of love?  Well, not in the movies...  But really if there are many things that contribute to your happiness, friends, family, where you live, what you do, quality of life, enjoyment, satisfaction, etc.  Choosing that person can be very challenging, especially when the logistics don't all match up, and definitely more challenging than the movies make it out to be...

A friend once said to me we have 3 difficult decisions to make and they are all interconnected.  Who you want to spend your life with?  Where you live?  What you do for a living?  Good luck with those!!

"Romantic love is an obsession, an addiction, its like someone is camping in your head (Helen Fisher, TED)"

Mike and Tanya I wish you all the best, I believe you have chosen perfectly!

Remember what Michael Franti says, "if you love somebody better tell them so cause you never ever know when they gonna go, if they love you back, just give thanks cause you can't keep love like money in a bank!"

I leave you with a great TED on Love - http://www.ted.com/talks/helen_fisher_studies_the_brain_in_love.html

Enjoy.

Probly some more focused thoughts on this in future!

 

My sister (so proud of her!)

You’ll find Andrea riding her bike around town eating carrots that she gets from a secret stash in her pocket, well aware of the choking hazard, but indulgent non-the-less.  She is probably on her way home from yoga thinking of words that rhyme - for the songs she makes up and sings along the way.  She is often known to be indulgently dramatic and hopelessly romantic, with a fiery intensity that has often left her concerned about spontaneous combustion.  She wishes peace, love, and joy for all planetary inhabitants and hopes to at least make you smile, if not create some warm fuzzy feelings inside, but hopefully not the “I just puked a little in my mouth” kind.  She loves forests most, especially the ones that come connected to mountains, and dreams someday that she will live in a tree house that she has built herself.  She is not sure about what comes next or where exactly she’s going in this life, she knows it’ll have its ups and downs, but has found, so far, that she’s enjoying the ride.  

Blink...

I know I am probly the very last person to read Blink by Malcom Gladwell, well I have finished and I loved it.  I have summarized it elsewhere, but would like to share the concluding thoughts for me here:

Sigmund Freud – “when making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons.  In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves.  In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature.”

This feels like such a backwards way of doing things, put lots of time and thought into simple things and none into really important things...  crazy.  But what Gladwell is trying to say is that our unconscious mind has the ability to make really good snap judgments and decisions for us.  That listening to our gut, our heart our emotion is often the best decision we can make.  

Blink is an awesome read, high concepts, I recommend it full heartedly!

enjoy

cd

Post Hatteras thoughts and reflections

Coming home off one of the greatest vacations of my life, and now the work doesn't seem quite as satisfying as before, the sunrise not quite as brilliant, the bread not quite as tasty... Feeling trapped in the confines of a 10 square foot cubicle, an 8-10hour workday, and the boundaries of a 9 month timeline to research, analyse, write and submit a masters thesis... I have not had this happen before, or at least as far as I can remember.

Community living, we spent 2 weeks, cooking, eating, kiting, partying, ott tubbing, etc with around 55 people, mainly from Regina and Winnipeg.  It's hard not to be happy surrounded by friendly smiling faces, warm water and wind.  I wonder how much of this is thanks to the perfect kiting conditions and how much is just to be in such wonderful company?

Well, I know I haven't said a lot, but its all I got, I'm just gonna take a minute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUKTl2s5oDY  Our Hatterass theme song.

ciao for now,

cd